Talon's Fear
by Ovo
Summary: UO. A dragon is tickled by doubt, and the shadow of mistrust.


_**Talon's Fear**_

"One more Tal or should we leave now?" my companion asked. It was a question not in need of an answer, as another of the creatures made itself known. For the gazers' well-known and rather impressive magic ability, they could be smarter. This particular member of the species regarded us both with its many eyes, and started floating towards me.

We had been there all morning, and I was beginning to get hungry. So that only helped my decision to get this over with quickly.

I pinned the gazer to the ground, and bit at it. I felt some strength leave me as it cast its magic, but it didn't hurt too much. Magic was, after all, only as strong as you let it be when used against you. I pushed down with a little more weight onto the thing, puncturing it with my ivory claws. Drawing from my own magical resources, I watched a pillar of flame erupt around the creature, carefully positioned so that it wouldn't touch me. I laughed at the creature's steadfastness, but was tired of this place. So I ended its life in one swift bite.

I felt a gentle push on my muzzle as Fira tried to move me away from the carcass. I complied with little resistance, and surveyed the area to make sure none of the gazer's kin were coming out of their little caves. Not that they were of any danger to me, but the little elfling that I'd adopted couldn't always hold her own against the older members of the species.

Seeing no danger, I watched as she pulled the few undamaged arrows from the gazer's body, and then cut deep into it's body with her dagger. Gold coins and a few gems fell out of the creature's stomach as it was cut open, and the girl swiftly collected it into a pouch and put the pouch into her backpack. Fira remounted her horse and moved away slightly from the dead thing.

"It's all yours," She said, readying her bow in the event that anything unfriendly showed up. I swiftly devoured the remains of the gazer, and, after a few failed attempts of the spell, left through the magically opened gate.

We appeared in the stables again, and, to my surprise, I saw a familiar face. Chains wrapped around his ankles and wrists, the dragon laughed as he saw me.

"You of all dragons!" he continued laughing, "I should have known you'd end up a slave."

"What do you mean?" I growled, "you're the one in chains"

"Oh? Tell me you weren't sold off by some humanoid? Tell me honestly!"

"I wasn't, my companion is rather kind to me, unlike yours it seems.."

He laughed again, "And you think they aren't all kind in the beginning? Let me ask you, does your 'companion' bring you to fight dangerous things? This is called training. These little pests do it so that they can sell you to less courageous people, or those without a serpents tongue."

"No, not all humanoids are like that," I said angrily.

"Oh? Tell me that in a month, no, a week when you are the pretty pet of some apprentice mage who wants to look good in front of his frie-"

He was cut off as I lunged at him. The stable hand leading him jumped out of the way, and I hit the other dragon hard against the nose.

"Talon!" Fira shouted, "What's wrong! Stop that!"

The other dragon swiped at me with his claws as I hesitantly retreated. He missed as he was chained down. It was a sorry sight.

Fira was making a hasty apology to the stable hand. I sat down and wrapped my tail around my forefeet. It was true that I'd been led to fight many dangerous things in the time since I left home, but Fira was against selling sentient creatures. She wouldn't sell me, she wouldn't!

I growled as she went to put that stupid collar around my neck. I stood still as the collar and leash were attached, but roared my disapproval.

"Sorry Tal," she said, "You know the rules, no untagged dragons in the city. I'm not letting the guards kill you for no reason."

I heard the click of hooves approaching, and turned my head slightly to see what it was. A unicorn daintily approached us, led by the stable worker. Fira exchanged the reigns of her horse for the reigns of Isis. The unicorn whinnied in greeting, and I huffed back at her.

The horse was led off, and Fira climbed up onto Isis' back. She attached my leash to the unicorn's halter, and we were on our way to heart of the city of Britain.

We passed the bank, and I witnessed the mass of people that were always there. Too many in one place, but it would make a great feast. Fira left us outside and left us just outside the door. Looking around, I saw that the usual parade of nightmares and dragons were sitting near the castle moat.

I saw a white wyrm chained down to the ground. She was roaring threats, and screaming curses. I was too far away to hear what she said over the crowd, but the audience was impressed. She was being sold to a skinny little mage who looked as though he spent all his time indoors. The wyrm's owner and the one he was selling to walked away while the owners aides began moving the wyrm to the stables.

"C'mon Talon," I heard Fira say, and looking down, I saw she'd remounted the unicorn and had a pile of hides draped across Isis' back.

We moved quickly, and soon were out of the bustle of the crowd around the bank. We soon came to the tannery, where the unicorn and I were again left outside. Unlike the bank, here we were able to stick our heads through the window.

The tanner, a robust middle aged man, looked at me with slight annoyance as I surveyed the inside of the tannery. He was a nice man at heart, but he grumbled too much.

"Ah. You have many hides today yes?" he asked Fira as she dropped the heavy bundle onto the floor.

"A couple hundred," she replied, "Some drake and daemon hides, pretty tough and good for armor"

"Well, you know I can only pay so much. How about three gold a yard?"

"Five," the elf replied. She'd been getting gold hungry recently, which pleased me. It was such a nice thing to see in a developing youngster.

"Hmm. I don't think I can do that, three is highest I can go right now," the man said.

"How about four and I'll call Talon off the hides he seems to think are food?" Fira said. I laughed, the hides in the corner hadn't had the blood vessels scrapped from them yet, and I'd been smelling them. They did smell rather tasty, so I could pretend to be interested.

"You'd better do as she says human," Isis said, enjoying the humor herself.

The man agreed a little reluctantly. I nibbled on one of the hides just to give emphasis and he gave in completely.

"Oh, think those cold weather clothes will be ready by tonight?" Fira asked as she began to leave. The man just nodded and mumbled something about getting back to work.

We went back to the stables after that. It was midday so perhaps a hunting trip would occur later that night. The unicorn and I were led off to our room.

The stables were customized to what lived in them. The part of the stable Fira rented out was a large room with two horse pens, a small pond, and my own replication of a lair. The horse pens held the nightmare and the unicorn, both fairly intelligent and able to make constructive conversation. The pond held a large frog, which mostly just sat there.

My "lair" was to the left of the horse pens. Its floor was covered in gold coins and gems (some of which I think may have been fake but it did look pretty enough). Whatever was put in there that was real, I guess the stable industry made enough to give dragons some bit of comfort. They probably doubted anyone would risk trying to steal it because the dragons wouldn't take too kindly to that.

I lay down on my bed and slept for a time. When I woke it was dark outside, and I again wondered about my future. The doubt had begun to creep into my mind, and I was getting more disturbed by the thoughts of being sold.

I walked out of the stables, and walked around the outside of the building. Looking in the windows I happened to see the same white wyrm I'd seen at the bank. I felt pity for the creature. She saw me, then addressed me.

"And who are you?" she asked, "And why are you here? You should fly away before you get caught."

"My name is Talon," I said, ignoring her rudeness. A dragon's name was a sacred and secret thing, not to be revealed to any but the dragon's closest friends. Never to be just given lightly, so I gave her the name the elfling gave me, "I live here, and I find it a pleasant enough existence."

"Hmm. Maybe you should rethink your actions, all humans are vile disgusting things."

"I don't live with a human," I stated, "But I do know some kind enough ones."

"They killed my mate," the white dragons mate for life, "And my nest had a hatchling in it when they dragged me here."

"I'm sorry to hear that, hopefully its death will nourish something worthy."

"That is my last hope," the wyrm replied.

"I must go, perhaps I'll see you again," I said to the unhappy prisoner.

I walked back to my lair and drooped over the bedding. I leaned over to the nearest horse pen.

"Sekhmet?" I asked hesitantly. My ears were met with a rustling sound and the nightmare's head appeared over the railing.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked, blinking her dark red eyes.

"You've been here longer than any of us, were there any dragons before me?"

"What? As in, in the stables or you mean that Fira has owned?"

"One's that she has. owned," I winced at the final word. It just didn't seem promising.

"Well," the nightmare said thoughtfully, "There have been a few, though I don't know what became of them. She doesn't speak of them after they are gone, so we don't know."

"Oh, I see," I mumbled.

I heard footsteps, and turned towards the door. An unfamiliar smell came into the room, and I saw in the darkness a human. He looked well off, and was soon joined by an aide. He was holding a logbook, and looked from me to the book a few times, and at the nightmare and unicorn in their pens.

I growled. This didn't seem right. The aide had a couple of halters in his hands, and moved towards the unicorn. He began to lead the sleepy creature out of the pen. I roared at him to stop, though he most likely just heard the roar as it was not his language. The man simply grinned at me.

Then he noticed I was one of the dragons well enough behaved to wander the stables freely, and I imitated his smiled best I could.

"Umm. Boss?" he said nervously.

"Just get it over with," the well-dressed man said, checking off something in the book.

The aide tied the unicorn's halter to a post and moved towards the nightmare. Sekhmet roared once and eyed the man fiercely. As he approached her she breathed a small cough of fire at him, sending him scurrying a little backwards.

I laughed, and roared a second warning.

The nightmare jumped the pen and went to stand near me. A roar sounded behind the men, and a dragon from the next pen walked into the room calmly.

The men looked around nervously. We were all well behaved, and so were allowed to roam freely. The guards soon came, and arrested the two men, along with some others who had been in the stable trying to steal some of the stronger creatures. The stable-mistress came along shortly, got Sekhmet and Isis into their proper stables, and brought us food. She took Fuego to his respected stable and everything was peaceful again.

About midnight, I smelt the familiar smell of my hunting companion, and something unfamiliar. Fira walked into the stable, and her boots crunched on the coins on the floor.

She was wearing unfamiliar clothes, and looked rather cold despite the warm weather. I smelled blood but she didn't seem injured. Snow clung to her hair and clothes, and her arms were clutching something under her cloak. She looked very pleased with herself.

The nightmare and unicorn both whinnied a greeting and the frog sitting in the corner made a croaking sound. I huffed, not wanting to alarm the other occupants of the stable this late at night.

She unclasped her cloak to reveal a small white ball a couple of feet in diameter. It smelled like a dragon. It uncurled itself, and I saw it was a feathered white wyrm infant. I growled, not sure what to make of this little newcomer. Could this possibly be my replacement? Was I going to be sold now?

Fira placed the creature on the floor, and it stood up and stretched. It then proceeded to stumble towards me in an uncoordinated, childlike way. I growled at it in warning. It chirped back and watched me with its icy blue eyes.

The elf was busy changing from her heavier clothes into her more normal, worn traveling clothes. I eyed the wyrm as it stumbled towards me, and curled up against one of my forelegs. I moved that leg off the ground. Confused, the wyrm curled up against my other foreleg, which I just as swiftly moved off the ground. The hatchling curled up against my flank, and I thought of crushing it. But it was kind of cute.

I growled and moved it back towards Fira with my tail. She grinned, stuffing her other clothes into her backpack, "Sorry Tal, your going to have to take care of her for a while, I have things to do,"

I looked at her with an angry expression on my face.

"What?" she asked, "It's not like I'm replacing you or anything, I'd never do that."

Suddenly I felt a whole lot better.

I moved the wyrm into a corner of the room and lie down on my bedding. Fira left and I eyed the feathered creature as it stumbled around the room, then stretched its wings. The unicorn watched the creature and made cooing noises, much to my disgust. The nightmare disappeared behind the railing. And the frog just sat there and sang its amphibious song.

I yawned. Life was good. And sleep was a part of it.

**_The End_**

* * *

**Working Title**: _Talon's Fear_

**Inspiration**: The rift between tamers and the taming of my first White Wyrm.

**Noteworthy**: This was originally posted on the Official UO player's forum, where many people posted RP stories.

**Disambiguation**: There was... (still is, last I checked) a kind of moral debate about the UO tamer. Some love their tames, some treat their tames as tools... some aggresively hate tamers, even though they _are_... well... yeah, it confused me as much as anyone.

**Series**: Sekhmet's Folly; Talon's Resolve; _Talon's Fear_; The Dragon Tamer; Sekhmet's Filly; Young Wings; Uncharted Horizon.

_Derivative work of material © EA, Origin, or whoever owns UO nowadays. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typos._


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